A Chinese birth tourism operation allegedly responsible for bringing more than 1,000 anchor babies into the United States has been forced to close its doors after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won a decisive legal battle against the Houston-area enterprise.
The De’Ai Postpartum Care Center, which operated out of three homes and one apartment in the Houston area, housed pregnant Chinese women whose sole purpose for visiting America was to give birth on U.S. soil, according to the state’s lawsuit. The arrangement exploited birthright citizenship protections, allowing these children to claim American citizenship simply by being born within U.S. borders.
“I will do everything in my power to stop foreign nationals from unlawfully exploiting our immigration system through the scam of ‘birth tourism,'” Paxton said in a statement late last week. “This operation helped Chinese foreign nationals come to Texas to evade our laws. Now, we have to shut it down.”
Paxton, who is also the Republican Senate nominee, filed suit against the center in April. The lawsuit accused De’Ai of “exploiting birthright citizenship by unlawfully facilitating the invasion of Chinese nationals … for the sole purpose of giving birth.”
According to Paxton’s lawsuit, De’Ai marketed itself as offering tourism experiences while expectant families awaited their delivery dates. The center provided a “luxury chauffeured black-car service across the Houston area” for its wealthy clients, ferrying them to attractions including the spring bluebonnets in Brenham, Texas, the Houston Rodeo, Christmas light shows, and the Louvre Couture exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts.
The shutdown represents a significant win for Texas as the Trump administration continues pushing to end birthright citizenship abuse. The issue has faced legal headwinds at the federal level. In June, the Supreme Court shut down President Donald Trump’s first attempt to end birthright citizenship entirely.
Trump signed executive orders in August targeting the exploitation of birthright citizenship through birth tourism and certain surrogacy arrangements. However, a federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked one of those orders earlier this month.
